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news

Pursuit of happiness

20 Sep 2011 | The Guardian

I am sitting across a table from my sister-in-law, outside a
small Italian restaurant, reading her a letter. As experiences go,
it's toe-curling. I am telling her everything I'm grateful to her
for. It's like a bad episode of Oprah. Surely us Brits aren't built
for this stuff?

But according to Action for Happiness,
little things like this can really improve our lives. The movement,
founded by LSE professor Richard Layard and Dr Anthony Seldon, aims
to create positive social change, and comes as the government
prepares to publish findings this autumn on its proposed happiness
index.

The movement's core idea is that we should all try to create
more happiness. Or, to paraphrase the Dalai Lama, happiness doesn't
just happen to you, you have to work at it. To this end, a list has
been drawn up of 50
activities, from getting to know neighbours to unplugging from
technology, that can make positive changes to our lives. But can
they work? I spent a week finding out …